Visa-free stays in China

China now allows 72-hour visa-free stays in an ever-increasing number of cities: Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Guangzhou, Guilin, Hangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai, Shenyang and Xi’an. My husband, John, and I made use of this to visit Shanghai. 

Think of this visa as an extended-time transit visa. 

Following our arrival in Shanghai, the rules stipulated that we would have to have a confirmed ongoing flight to a third country within three days and that the third country could not be the country of origin. Of course, we also could not fly from Shanghai to another city in China. John and I were scheduled to fly to Shanghai on Jan. 1, 2015, and we had tickets showing we would be flying on to Bangkok, Thailand, three days later (which, due to the international date line, would be on Jan. 5). 

Originally, via Syracuse, we were flying out of Newark to Shanghai, but United changed our route and, after Syracuse, we would be departing from Chicago.

That flight was due to arrive in Shanghai at 2:40 p.m., but our departure flight three days later was not until 5:20 p.m., meaning that we would be in Shanghai nearly 75 hours.

Anticipating that there might be an issue with our staying three hours past the 72-hour limit, I contacted the airport in Shanghai, the China National Tourist Office and the Chinese consulate in New York City to get clarification. Consular staff informed me by email that the DATE of the departure would be stamped in our passports, not the time.

I presented the email to the United Airlines staff when checking in in Chicago, but it was a no-go. Because of the time limit, they wouldn’t let us board the plane. We were rescheduled to fly to Shanghai the next day, by which time our Shanghai stay would be only two days.

 When we finally arrived in Shanghai, our passports were, indeed, stamped with the DATE we were to leave, with no indication of the time of our arrival or any required departure time. In other words, we could have shown up on the previous day*.

China’s 72-hour-visa-free-stay procedure is fairly new, and not all United staff were up to speed. When we showed up on the second day in Chicago, a United agent wasn’t going to check us in because he didn’t see China visas in our passports. He had to get his superior to check on the validity of visa-free stays, and even he took forever to read through all of the parameters before checking us in. 

Nevertheless, we found the brief, visa-free stay in China worthwhile, as it gave us a couple of days to adjust to the time difference before heading on to Southeast Asia. We’ll use it again if the occasion arises.

SANDRA SCOTT

Contributing Editor 

*Regarding 72-hour visa-free stays in selected cities in China, according to a TravelChinaGuide webpage (www.travelchinaguide.com/embassy/visa/free-72hour), “… the 72 hours starts from 00:00 the day following the entry date in all the airports except Beijing. The 72 hours are counted from the flight’s scheduled arrival time to the departure time in Beijing Capital International Airport,” which uses the airport code PEK.